1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of Internet Telephony, and in particular, the emulation of POTS call placement and receipt using a specialized remote cordless telephone handset.
2. Background Information
The recent surge in Internet Telephony software and infrastructure creation has provided the public with the ability to make and receive voice calls from a PC to other PC's and telephones. More advanced systems such as the Trident™ system developed by Pagoo also allow inbound calling from a telephone to a user PC, and similar services are expected to appear in the near future from ITXC and other Internet Telephony Service Providers. Current systems rely on audio ringing via speakers or other sound card/DSP based devices to play a ringing sound that notifies the user of an inbound call.
This has created the situation where even with volume set high, a user is required to stay within audio range of their computer to receive a call, and then quickly reduce the volume as the call is accepted, or alternatively, stay in front of the computer at any time a call is expected. There is currently no way to remotely answer an inbound call, or dial without replacing the entire PC sound system with a custom device. Even such custom devices attempt to interface a standard two wire telephone, creating the problem of echo, which most DSP based processing cannot fully eliminate. Additionally, operating a PC with multiple sound devices such as a Voice modem, Sound Card, and telephone adapter can cause massive user confusion as PC standard audio must now be mapped to the proper device for each use. The best example is the standard WAV file, which may be music, game sound effects, a Windows alert sound, Internet Telephony Voice or an Internet Telephony “Ring”. Mapping of a WAV file to the correct device and maintaining those mappings is usually beyond an average user's capability, and automated mapping often has unintended and undesirable results. USB based solutions which also add an additional sound system suffer from some of the same issues, and are additionally limited by the USB specification to approximately 12 ft. range from the computer.